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Family continues to seek justice for Justine

Culpeper teacher remembered two years after her mysterious death

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

Date published: 11/4/2008

BY DONNIE JOHNSTON

Minutes before a ceremony began commemorating the second anniversary of his daughter's death, Steve Swartz knelt down to console a third-grade girl in tears.

The child had been one of Justine Swartz Abshire's Emerald Hill Elementary School kindergarten students and was now overcome with emotion as she recalled the day in 2006 when she was told that her teacher was dead.

While former students relive the moment only occasionally, not a day goes by that Swartz, his wife, Heidi, and their daughter Lauren don't think about that fateful night when they got the terrible news, especially since they still don't know for certain how Abshire died.

Yesterday the family gathered with about 60 of their daughter's friends, co-workers and a few former students to mark the sad anniversary.

On the lawn in back of the Culpeper elementary school, those who knew the 27-year-old teacher wrote messages on pieces of ribbon and attached them to branches of a small maple tree that had recently been transplanted in Abshire's memory.

Later, a patchwork quilt made by Abshire's students was hung in a school lobby.

"Except for being with her family, this is where Justine was most at home," Swartz told those assembled. "This was her family, too."

Moments later Heidi Swartz assured the small crowd, "Know that justice will be served!"

Justice is what the Swartz family has been seeking for two years.

Justine Swartz Abshire had been married less than six months when she was found dead on Taylorsville Road in the Barboursville area of Orange County late one November night.

Her body was discovered about 600 feet from her car, the door open and her keys and purse still inside.

To this day, no one knows why she was out around the midnight hour or exactly how she was killed. At first the Virginia State Police felt this may have been a hit-and-run incident, but later they began to suspect that Abshire may have been murdered.

According to the Swartz Web site, justiceforjustine, investigators have stated that there were no skid marks and little blood at the scene, and believe the young teacher's death was "not solely the result of a car impact."

"Things are not what they seem," Lauren Swartz said yesterday. "Accepting that was hard."

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Date published: 11/4/2008